After training, Clive stood under a cold shower, letting the water wash away the sweat and exhaustion from a month of tough exercises. Over the past month, his body had become leaner and stronger, muscles becoming more defined from the intense training. Even though it was just a month, his endurance had increased, and he felt tougher.
This month had been challenging, but he managed to complete each day without missing a session. Because of that, he received a quest reward. A black screen appeared in front of him, displaying:
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Quest: Complete one month of HYDRA training without missing a single day.
Status: Completed
Reward: +0.04 constitution points, +15 XP
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He closed the panel and sighed, aware of how closely HYDRA watched every student. Clive knew he couldn't act the same as the previous Clive since he was only given bits and pieces of his memories. HYDRA would likely notice even small changes, so he focused on training hard without drawing extra attention to himself.
Still, he wasn't completely helpless. During the mountain climbs, he'd looked for hidden spots, hoping to find somewhere safe to practice his abilities. On his fifth day, he spotted a cave and thought it might work as a hideout, but he was careful and didn't go there right away. He knew HYDRA likely had surveillance everywhere, so he kept waiting for the right moment.
On the seventh day, his chance came when the agent increased the body weight of his group, making the climb harder. Feeling more tired than usual, he decided to use this as a perfect excuse to rest and headed into the cave. Here, he hoped he might be able to test his abilities safely, out of sight.
Clive stepped carefully into the cave, using his need for a break as an excuse in case HYDRA agents were watching. The cave was dark and quiet, with only a few rays of light from small cracks above. He searched the ground and walls for any signs that someone had been there recently—like footprints, equipment, or cameras. After checking for a while, he was relieved to find thick dust and untouched cobwebs, meaning the cave hadn't been used in a long time. Confident that he was safe, he let himself relax and decided to test out his new powers.
He focused and summoned Reality Essence—the energy that powered his abilities. It appeared around him like glowing thick black smoke. He could feel that this smoke was just like an extension of his body that he could control at will. With a few more experiments, he found out that he could make the reality essence invisible at will, even while he used it. This would help him hide his powers from HYDRA's watchful eyes.
After familiarising with the Reality Essence, he decided to test his first ability, Basic Alteration. Picking up a small pebble, he concentrated and spent 5 units of Reality Essence to change its color. The stone surrounded by the now invisible reality essence turned bright red, as if it had been painted. The change faded after a few minutes, but Clive was pleased with the result. Before moving to the next ability, he also experimented by changing shape and size of the pebbles trying to get more information and application of this ability of his.
Next, he tried Illusory Creation. Clive focused and created an illusion of several large pebbles scattered across the ground around him. As he looked down, he could see multiple pebbles appearing out of thin air, but he knew that there weren't real; his senses weren't fooled by the trick. However, he was certain that anyone else would believe the pebbles were real.
After five minutes, the illusion faded, and the ground was left clear once more.
Finally, he moved on to Telekinesis. Clive looked at a small rock across the cave, focused, and used 10 units of Reality Essence to lift it into the air. The rock floated and moved with his thoughts, rising and falling as he wished. The fact that he could make the Reality Essence invisible even during Telekinesis meant he could lift objects without anyone seeing how he did it.
Curious about his limits, Clive experimented further with Telekinesis. He found that he could control up to ten small rocks at the same time, but a eleventh one made it harder to keep control. He then tested how long he could move them in the air—about fourty minutes before he felt his reality essence being almost emptied. Lastly, he tried lifting a heavier rock, about the size of a backpack. He managed to lift it but could only hold it for a minute due to the reality essence being completely exhausted because of all the earlier experiments.
He was pleased to discover that only Telekinesis actively consumed Reality Essence while in use. For Object Alteration and Illusory Creation, Reality Essence was only used at the moment of activation; afterward, the alteration or illusion would remain until the time limit expired without consuming any additional Reality Essence. Additional Reality Essence would only be required if Clive wanted to maintain that smar illusion or alteration or make further changes to the already created illusion or altered object.
As he tested his powers, Clive also noticed how his Reality Essence felt like a living force, bending and flowing with his will. He knew he still had a lot to learn but felt excited about his progress.
After leaving the cave, Clive knew there was still one thing he needed to figure out: the regeneration time of his Reality Essence. He wanted to know exactly how long it would take to fully recharge his pool of 500 units, especially since the panel hadn't provided specific instructions on how to restore it, only stating that it would regenerate naturally over time. He glanced down at the watch on his wrist, deciding to keep track of the intervals between each small rise in his Reality Essence level.
After monitoring carefully, he determined that his Reality Essence regenerated at a steady rate, taking approximately one hour to fully restore all 500 units.
As he was recalling all the troubles he went in the past month, Clive stepped out of the shower, feeling refreshed but aware of the pressure around him. It had been nearly 24 days since he first experimented with his abilities, and during this time, he practiced carefully. He made sure to use just enough time for each session so that the agents wouldn't notice anything strange. Each day brought new challenges, but he could feel his powers getting a little stronger, even if only bit by bit.
He knew how hard he had worked, but he still felt limited. Even though he had gained a total of 125 experience points from completing quest and regular training, he knew that leveling up to Level 2 was still a long way off. Each experience point felt like progress, but reaching the next level seemed frustratingly far.
Clive had learned that the experience points he earned from training were spread across all three of his abilities: Basic Alteration, Illusory Creation, and Telekinesis. He realized he needed to train all three if he wanted to earn enough experience to level up.
However, he also understood that completing quests was a much faster way to grow. Finishing a quest not only helped him improve all his abilities at once but did so more quickly than training each one separately. Additionally he would also gain an increase in his constitution.
Well it also depended upon the quests he would be assigned. So there were pros and cons for each method.
Thinking about this made Clive more determined. He knew that in the dangerous world of Marvel, he needed to move fast. The more quests he completed, the more he trained, the stronger he would become, which would help him use his abilities better.
With the knowledge he had gained from the experimenting over the past month and the experience points he had earned, Clive was focused on his training, ready to face whatever challenges came next.
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